Core Strength Workouts, Exercises and Core Strength Training
Why is Core Strength so important
Although exercises like deadlifts and squats work the core muscles, you may need additional exercises to target core muscles to build core strength.
I generally do not recommend core strengthening exercises as isolation core moves are less efficient time-wise than core stabilizing exercises.
In the core exercises section section, I have given you 5 excellent core exercises with bodyweight alone like planks, crunches, horse stance, abdominis tuck and more.
In this article I will show you Core Strength Training with Core Strength Exercises, Workouts for a Complete Core Training.
You will find core strength exercises with barbells, kettlebells and medicine balls
Inside This Article
-What is core strength and its importance?
-How to build core strength
-Sample Beginner Core Strength Workout Routine
-Sample Advanced Core Strength Workout
-Core Training - More Tips and Exercises
What is core strength and its importance?
Body builders are known for their size and strength, but ask yourself this question: when was the last time you saw a professional athlete or martial artist, or a professional dancer, who looked as extreme-ripped and bulky as a body builder?
Body builders are very impressive with what they do, but when it all comes down it's really just for show. If only you knew how much energy those bulky men really lack.
That's why you don't see big, strong athletes like football players, ice hockey players, or professional fighters who look like that. You see, true fitness requires a mixture of strength, speed, endurance, and dexterity.
Too much bulk and you just don't have all of these things.
This is why the importance of building core strength cannot be understated.
Is Core Training a new concept?
One of the great masters of core strength development was a man named Joseph Pilates.
Yes, there is now an entire set of core strength exercises named just for him. Pilates was lean, not bulky, but he had had immense pound-for-pound strength. Another man like this whom you may have heard of was named Bruce Lee. Bruce Lee was slender and short, but at the same time ripped and, well, who in the world wanted to fight him?
Bruce Lee, like Joseph Pilates, had no interest in become big and bulky, but instead he wanted develop and maintain his core strength. Today's modern, fast-paced, high-intensity tennis players are also great masters of core strength (those that are successful, anyway). So are tri-athletes.
Core strength development is about a total body workout. It is a workout routine that develops all of the body even though one or two muscle groups are the ones being the most emphasized at one time.
Core strength development is also used for enhancing the cardiovascular system, yet without reducing someone to the ultra-slender form of the distance runner or the yoga practitioner.
Note: running and yoga can both have a place in your workout regimen for building core strength. But, many people stick just with these things and so part of their physical development is lacking.
For true core strength development, you should not make use of any machines. Machines help a person maintain where they are now, and of course body builders use them--for hours and hours a day.
But if you want to build core strength, you need to stay with a program of body weight resistance and endurance training. Mastering resistance of force, weight, and gravity is what builds the core strength.
So, one of the tools that you can make use of for core strength training is a simple "home gym" exercise bar. This is a tool that can be used as a push-up bar, a dips bar, and even a portable chin up bar. It's not expensive at all and its purpose is to facilitate your use, to maximum potential, of some of the best core strength building exercises.
For instance, the push-ups you would do on such a bar are "deep push-ups". You would never touch the ground or be able to go down all the way. Instead, you would need to keep yourself suspended to one degree or another at all moments of the workout. This turns one bar push-up routine into a far more powerful strength and fitness building tool than the normal floor-based push-ups.
Other tools that you want are a medicine ball; a couple of pairs of different sized kettlebells; resistance bands; and a pair of running (or cross training) shoes. You may also want a Pilates mat.
Sample Beginner Core Strength Workout Routine
If you're a beginner, you want to build up your routine slowly over time. You will be taxing your muscles, heart, and lungs in ways that you may never have thought about before, so you don't want to be subject to high risk of injury, strain, or fatigue.
Therefore, for the first three weeks just do your routine twice per week. After that, start doing it every other day. After a couple of months you can work up to doing a routine five or six days a week.
Here's an example of a good beginner routine:
*Two sets of kettlebell exercises, three times each for eight to 12 reps each time, with one minute rests in between. Use the heaviest weights you can achieve this amount of lifting with.
*Two sets of Hindu squats, 20 to 30 reps each.
*Two sets of workout bar push-ups, maximum amount to failure each time.
Sample Advanced Core Strength Workout
Now, the main part about becoming advanced at core strength building is that you add in more variety and intensity, as well as frequency as already mentioned. So, an example of an advanced workout could be to do the above exercise routine one day, except do three sets each; and then the next day:
*Run for two miles (not jog).
*Do six to 10 wind sprints, 10 seconds each.
*Work out with the medicine ball for 10 to 15 minutes.
As you gain experience you will learn the sets that you like the most and that you can put together to get the results you are seeking for yourself. Lean but strong is what you want to achieve, not bulky muscle mass.
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